Senior Network Engineer, Cingularity in London

Who We Are:

IMG is a leading global sports marketing agency, specializing in media rights management and sales, multi-channel content production and distribution, brand partnerships, strategic consulting, digital services, and events management. It powers growth of revenues, fanbases and IP for more than 200 federations, associations, events, and teams, including the National Football League, English Premier League, International Olympic Committee, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, ATP and WTA Tours, the AELTC (Wimbledon), Euroleague Basketball, CONMEBOL, DP World Tour, and The R&A, as well as UFC, WWE, and PBR.

This role is being hired into Cingularity, a division of IMG Studios who are specialists in bespoke live video networking and production solutions. Cingularity operate at each stage of the remote production workflow, delivering quality network designs and primary distribution services to premium broadcast networks and sports rights holders globally.

Working Conditions:

• Permanent, London, Spitalfields, London, United Kingdom
• Hybrid
• Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm

What You'll Do:

The Senior Network Engineer (NetOps) at Cingularity is a pivotal role demanding technical expertise and innovative thinking. As a core member of our engineering team, you will be responsible for designing, building, and maintaining the complex infrastructure that powers our mission-critical transmission systems.

This position is designed for an engineer who can bridge the gap between traditional networking methodologies and modern NetOps practices. You will take ownership of our core networking infrastructure, including a specialised DTM (Dynamic Synchronous Transfer Mode) network, while strategically introducing automation to enhance resilience and performance.

Global Telemetry & Network Management:

• Core Routing & Switching: Design and operate distributed systems with an advanced understanding of OSPF and BGP.
• Multicast Routing: Maintain a solid understanding of Multicast routing to ensure efficient data delivery across broadcast environments.
• DTM Specialisation: Take primary responsibility for the management and optimisation of the DTM network, ensuring it meets the rigorous demands of live broadcast.
• Global Telemetry: Manage and refine a global telemetry network to ensure consistent data flow and visibility across all international transmission points.
• Capacity Planning: Manage network capacity and advise on hardware/bandwidth upgrades triggered by business growth and specific customer projects.
• Traffic Forwarding: Ensure optimal performance and data integrity for high-availability, scalable systems used for critical live content broadcasting.

Network Security & Maintenance:

• Infrastructure Security: Take ownership of network security, implementing best practices for access control and protection across the entire ecosystem.
• Firmware & Lifecycle Management: Manage and execute regular firmware upgrades, patching, and maintenance across all network hardware to ensure stability and mitigate vulnerabilities.
• System Hardening: Implement network-level security hardening to protect mission-critical transmission paths.

NetOps & Monitoring Refinement:

• Internal Tooling: Build and refine monitoring techniques where the primary 'customers' are our internal TOC and Event Engineering teams.
• Observability Design: Utilise and assist in the development of modern monitoring and logging systems (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch) and the Netbox source of truth.
• Automation Development: Implement automation strategies for infrastructure management using tools such as Ansible, Python, and shell scripting.
• Methodology Modernisation: Lead the transition from manual workflows to automated NetOps processes to reduce manual intervention and improve efficiency.

Technical Leadership & Collaboration:

• Level 3 Troubleshooting: Proactively monitor performance and serve as a level 3 escalation point for complex networking issues.
• Team Guidance: Mentor and collaborate with technology teams on engineering projects and the resolution of high-level technical issues.
• Training: Assist engineers in learning networking concepts and the specific architecture of the Cingularity network.
• Project Delivery: Lead technical network projects from concept to deployment, meeting schedules and budget constraints.

You Have These:

• Networking Expertise: Advanced knowledge of the TCP/IP Stack, including switching and routing protocols (OSPF, BGP).
• Network Security: Proven experience in securing network infrastructure and managing hardware firmware lifecycles.
• Multicast Routing: Practical experience with Multicast protocols in a production environment.
• Automation: Demonstrable experience using Python and Ansible for automation, scripting, and integration.
• IPAM/DCIM: Experience using Netbox for infrastructure documentation and management.
• Monitoring: Practical experience with modern observability tools like Grafana, ELK, and InfluxDB.

Advantageous:

• Advanced Broadcast Standards: Knowledge of SMPTE ST 2110 networks and related timing/synchronisation requirements.
• Legacy & Specialised Transport: Direct experience with DTM (Dynamic Synchronous Transfer Mode) or ATM technologies.
• Version Control: Experience using GitHub for managing automation scripts and configuration.
• Broadcast Protocols: Understanding of real-time transport protocols (RTP, UDP, SRT, Zixi) and video encoding (AVC, HEVC, JPEG-XS).
• Project Management: Experience with tools such as ClickUp, Monday.com, or Jira.

Soft Skills:

• Communication: The ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Focus Under Pressure: The ability to remain focused under pressure and maintain the highest standards of accuracy in a live environment.
• Proactive Mindset: An organised and self-motivated individual who proactively seeks innovative solutions.